In 1088 Urban II was elected as the 159th Pope. He was best known for initiating the scourge that was the Crusades. In 1622 Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, the co-founders of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, were canonized by the Catholic Church. The Jesuits went with the Conquistadors to the New World and were involved in aggressive conversion efforts. And in 1938 Germany expanded its influence in Europe, ostensibly to save guard ethnic Germans, with the Ancluss absorption of Austria.
In more positive developments the Girl Guides – later renamed Girl Scouts – were formed in the US in 1912 – doing great work and selling great cookies. Mahatma Gandhi began his 200-mile Salt March to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in 1930. And in 1933 President FDR held his first fireside chat – conversations with the American public to try to calm fears of economic depression and impending war.
Those born this date hail from various arenas – American beat writer Jack Kerouac (1922 on the road), American astronaut Wally Shirra (1923) who was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts and also flew Gemini and Apollo missions, Atlanta mayor and US Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young (1932), and Iraq War veteran and now US Senator Tammy Duckworth (1968) who sacrificed two limbs for her country overseas.
Two popes died on this date in history -Innocent I in 417 and Gregory I in 604. The first president of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, passed on in 1925. Eugene Ormandy, the conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony ceased to wave his baton in 1985. And prolific author Robert Ludlum penned his last words in 2001.
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